Everyone recognizes the importance of attaining knowledge. There is an ongoing debate that students should understand the ideas and concepts in order to effectively obtain knowledge. I believe that just only learning facts from text books or explanation from teachers can not be fully learned, The reason is that knowing facts can not be applied to other similarly conditioned situations. Moreover, students can sustain obtained knowledge longer in the long run.
First of all, memorizing facts can not be applied to the different contexts or similar situations since students do not know the kernel of questions they are asked in their learning. By comprehending the core of questions, students can apply their knowledge to multiple contexts. To take a personal example, korean education systems reinforce students to memorize a tons of facts to get perfect scores in questions without understanding statements conceptually at all. I was also the one of people who were educated in that way. However, the experiences in College of Canada as an exchange student paved the way for the importance of perceiving concepts in terms of learning. The professor in the college tried to deliver conceptual knowledge and have students expand their ideas. Students, in turn, employed ideas and raised the relevant questions, which could not be possible by only exposing students to know facts. This proves how significant students gain the conceptual knowledge to have a critical thinking in multiple contexts.
On top of that, understanding concepts and ideas in learning enables students to sustain acquired knowledge rather than memorizing suggested facts. This is because students can perceive the underlying principle behind facts, which enhance prolongation of knowledge. For example, when he or she studies history, there are myriad of historical events, sequences and dates. If students are forced to learn facts represented from texts, the process of learning in history is meaningless and can be forgotten easily. In order to retain historical knowledge longer, students should examine underlying meaning of historical events and further what consequences emerged. Once they get this conceptual knowledge in history, it doesn't take much time for students to assimilate lessons they are presented in class.
All things considered, students can develope and expand their obtained knowledge by understanding conceptualized ideas. This will enable student to take a further step in their learning, since learning just established facts does not tell fundamental knowledge and impede the prolongation of principles.
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